And where shall Israel lave her bleeding VIU. feet? And when shall Sion's songs again seem OA! gnatch'd away in beanty's bloom, sweet? On thee shall press no ponderous tomb; And Judah's melody once more rejoice But on thy turf shall roses rear The hearts that leap'd before its heavenly Their leaves, the earliest of the year; voice? And the wild cypress wave in tender gloom : Tribes of the wandering foot and weary And oft by yon blue gushing stream breast, Shall Sorrow lean her drooping head, How shall ye flee away and be at rest! And feed deep thought with many a dream, The wild dove hath her nest, the fox his cave, And lingering pause and lightly tread: Mankind their country-Israel but the grave! Fond wretch! as if her step disturb'd the dead! VI. Away; we know that tears are vain, On Jordan's banks the Arabs' camels stray, will this unteach us to complain? That death nor heeds nor hears distress: On Sion's hill the False One's votaries pray, The Baal-adorer bows on Sinai's steep Or make one mourner wecp the less ? Yet there—even there-Oh God! thy thun- And thon--who tell’st me to forget, ders sleep: Thy looks are wan, thine eyes are wet. There—where thy finger scorch'd the tabletstone! IX. There-where thy shadow to thy people shone! My Soul is dark.-Oh! quickly string Thy glory shrouded in its garb of fire: The harp I yet can brook to hear; Thyself—none living see and not expire! And let thy gentle fingers fling Oh! in the lightning let thy glance appear! If in this heart a hope be dear, Its melting murmurs o'er mine car. Sweep from his shiver'd hand the oppres- That sound shall charm it forth again; sors' spear : If in these eyes there lurk a tear, How long by tyrants shall thy land be trod! 'Twill flow, and cease to burn my brain: How long thy temple worshipless, oh God! But bid the strain be wild and deep, Nor let thy notes of joy be first: I tell thee, Minstrel, I must weep, Or else this heavy heart will burst; JEPHTHA'S DAUGHTER. For it hath been by sorrow nurst, And ached in sleepless silence long; Since our country, our God-Oh, my Sire! And now 'tis doom'd to know the worst, Demand that thy Daughter expire; And break at once, or yield to song. Since thy triumph was bought by thy vowStrike the bosom that's bared for thee now! X. And the voice of my mourning is o'er, And the mountains behold me no more : If the hand that I love lay me low, I saw thee weep-the big bright tear There cannot be pain in the blow! Came o'er that eye of blue; And then methought it did appear Beside thee ceased to shine; That fillid that glance of thine. Can banish from the sky, That lightens o'er the heart. XI. Shrunken and sinewless, and ghastly bare: frame, came. Tny Days are done, thy fame begun; Thy country's strains record The slaughters of his sword ! The freedom he restored ! Though thou art fall'n, while we are free Thou shalt not taste of death! Disdain'd to sink beneath : Thy spirit on our breath! Saul saw, and fell to earth, as falls the oak, “Why is my sleep disquieted ? Thy name, our charging hosts along, Shall be the battle-word ! From virgin-voices pour’d! Thou shalt not be deplored. XII. XIV. “ALL IS VANITY, SAITH THE PREACHER.” WARRIORS and Chiefs! should the shaft or the sword Fami, wisdom, love, and power were ininc, Pierce me in leading the host of the Lord, And health and youth possess'd me; Heed not the corse, though a king's, in My goblets blush'd from every vine, your path : And lovely forms caress'd me; Bury your steel in the bosoms of Gath! I sunnd my heart in beauty's eyes, Thou who art bearing my buckler and bow, all earth can give, or mortal prize, And felt my soul grow tender; Should the soldiers of Saul look away from Was mine of regal splendour. the foe, Stretch me that moment in blood at thy feet! I strive to number o'er what days Mine be the doom which they dared not Remembrance can discover, to meet. Which all that life or earth displays Would lure me to live over. Farewell to others, but never we part, There rose no day, there rollid no hour Heir to my royalty, son of my heart! Bright is the diadem, boundless the sway; And not a trapping deck'd my power Of pleasure unembitter'd; Or kingly the death, which awaits us to-day! That gall’d not while it glitter'd. The serpent of the field, by art And spells, is won from harming; But that which coils around the heart, Oh! who hath power of charming ? Nor music's voice can lure it; But there it stings for evermore “Samuel, raise thy buried head! The soul that must endure it. XV. But leaves its darken'd dust behind. Then, unembodied, doth it trace By steps each planet's heavenly way? Or fill at once the realms of space, A thing of eyes, that all survey ? Eternal, boundless, undecay'd, A thought unseen, but seeing all, Shall it survey, shall it recal: So darkly of departed years, And all, that was, at once appears. Its eye shall roll through chaos back; And where the furthest heaven had birth, The spirit trace its rising track. And where the future mars or makes, Its glance dilate o'er all to be, Fix'd in its own eternity. It lives all passionless and pure: Its years as moments shall endure. Away, away, without a wing, O'er all, through all, its thought shall fly; A nameless and eternal thing, Forgetting what it was to dio. A captive in the land, A stranger and a youth, He heard the king's command, He saw that writing's truth. The lamps around were bright, The prophecy in view; He read it on that night, The morrow proved it true. XVI. VISION OF BELSHAZZAR. The King was on his throne, The Satraps throng'd the hall; A thousand bright lamps shone O’er that high festival. A thousand cups of gold, In Judah deem'd divineJehovah's vessels hold The godless Heathen's wine! XVIII. WERB my bosom as false as thou deemst it to be, I need not have wander'd from far Galilee; It was but abjuring my creed to efface The curse which, thou sayst, is the crime of my race. In that same hour and hall, The fingers of a hand Came forth against the wall, And wrote as if on sand : The fingers of a man ; A solitary hand Along the letters ran, And traced them like a wand. If the bad never triumph, then God is with thee! If the slave only sin, thou art spotless and free! If the Exile on earth is an Outcast on high, Live on in thy faith, but in mine I will die. The monarch saw, and shook, And bade no more rejoice; All bloodless wax'd his look And tremulous his voice. “Let the men of lore appear, The wisest of the earth, And expound the words of fear, Which mar our royal mirth.” I have lost for that faith more than thou canst bestow, As the God who permits thee to prosper doth know; In his hand is my heart and my hope-- and in thine The land and the life which for him I resign. may be, XIX. And now that day, HEROD'S LAMENT FOR MARIAMNE. But I mark'd not the twilight-beam melting away ; Oh, Mariamne! now for thee Oh! would that the lightning had glared The heart for which thou bled'st is in its stead, bleeding; And the thunderbolt burst on the conquerRevenge is lost in agony, or's head! And wild remorse to rage succeeding. Oh, Mariamne! where art thou ? But the Gods of the Pagan shall never Thou canst not hear my bitter pleading: profane Ah, couldst thou—thou wouldst pardon now, The shrine where Jehovah disdain'd not to Though Heaven were to my prayer un reign ; heeding. And scatter'd and scorn'd as thy people And is she dead ?—and did they dare Our worship, oh Father! is only for thee. Obey my phrensy's jealous raving? XXI. We sat down and wept by the waters And this dark heart is vainly craving Of Babel, and thought of the day For her who soars alone above, When our foe, in the hue of his slaughters, And leaves my soul unworthy saving. Made Salem's high places his prey ; And ye, oh her desolate Daughters ! She's gone, who shared my diadem; Were scatter'd all weeping away. She sunk, with her my joys entombing; I swept that flower from Judah’s stem While sadly we gazed on the river Whose leaves for me alone were blooming; Which rollid on in freedom below, And mine's the guilt, and mine the hell, They demanded the song; but, oh never This bosom's desolation dooming; That triumph the stranger shall know! And I have earn'd those tortures well, May this right hand be wither'd for ever, Which unconsumed are still consuming! Ere it string our high harp for the foe! XX. On the willow that harp is suspended, Oh Salem! its sound should be free; But left me that token of thee: And ne'er shall its soft tones be blended From the last hill that looks on thy once With the voice of the spoiler by mc ! holy dome I beheld thee, oh Sion! when render'd to Rome: XXII. Twas thy last sun went down, and the flames of thy fall THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNAFlash'd back on the last glance 1 gavo to CHERIB. thy wall. The Assyrian came down like the wolf I look'd for thy temple, I look’d for my on the fold, home, And his cohorts were gleaming in purple And forgot for a moment my bondage tocome; and gold; I beheld but the death-fire that fed on thy And the sheen of their spears was like stars fane, on the sea, And the fast-fetter'd hands that made ven- When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee. geance in vain. were seen: On many an eve, the high spot whence I Like the leaves of the forest when Summer gazed is green, Had reflected the last beam of day as it That host with their banners at sunset blazed ; While I stood on the height, and beheld Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn the decline hath blown, Of the rays from the mountain that shone That host on the morrow lay wither'd and on thy shrine. strewn. For the Angel of Death spread his wings | And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal; on the blast, And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by And breathed in the face of the foe as he the sword, pass'd; Hath melted like snow in the glance of the And the eyes of the sleepers wax'd deadly Lord ! and chill, And their hearts but once heaved, and for XXIII. ever grew still! FROM JOB. And there lay the steed' with his nostril all wide, A SPIRIT pass'd before me: I beheld But through it there roll'd not the breath The face of Immortality unveil'd of his pride: Deep sleep came down on every eye save And the foam of his gasping lay white on minethe turf, And there it stood,-all formless_but divine: And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf. Along my bones the creeping flesh did quake; And as my damp hair stiffen'd, thus it spake: And there lay the rider distorted and pale, With the dew on his brow and the rust on "Is man more just than God? Is man his mail; more pure And the tents were all silent, the banners Than he who deems even Seraphs insecure? alone, Creatures of clay-vain dwellers in the dust! The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown. The moth survives you,and are ye more jast? Things of a day! you wither ere the night, And the widows of Ashur are loud in Heedless and blind to Wisdom's wasted their wail, light! Tis done-but yesterday a King! With might unquestion'd, -power to save And arm’d with Kings to strive- Thine only gift bath been the grave Nor, till thy fall, could mortals guess bones ? Thanks for that lesson-it will teach To after-warriors more And vainly preach'd before. That spell upon the minds of men That led them to adore With fronts of brass, and feet of clay. 1 |